"Oh? I thought you were rather tenacious. Didn't think you would lose this game so soon," the girl replied, a gorgeous smile covering her now hedious face. Miko glared at the girl, which simply removed the net from her. She would be wrong to think that girl was going to free her. The girl simply placed a talisman on her, most likely the talisman of paralysis on her, as Miko felt herself losing control of her body slowly, as it her own body did not belong to her.
"Time for punishment!" The girl smiled, her laughter reverberated through the forest, with malicious intent that could be easily sensed. She picked Miko up, and threw her on the floor repeatedly. Miko could not extend her legs or use her paws to lessen the impact, so each throw to the floor was more impactful. Just as the girl was about to pick Miko up and bring her home, a sharp, wooden skewer sliced through the air and the girl could only sense it when it was too close to completely dodge. It skewered through her right chest, blood spurting from the area as a pained groan was emitted by the girl. Her brother stared in shock, as what appeared to be a purple fox stared at them maliciously. The fox bared her fangs, intimidating them. She emmited a low growl, which was enough to convince the two human cultivators to run. The purple fox gave chase, much to the duo's dismay. The fox was light lavender in colour, yet had brown swirls at the end of its five tails. She had a bright white diamond shining on her forehead. It was clear who the fox was to miko.
"Asura..." Miko thought to herself. Knowing that there was no possibility that they could outrun the purple fox chasing them, they decided to sacrifice the adorable, pink fox in their hands to her, not knowing beasts, especially those of the same kind, would never attack each other without reason. Asura immediately hovered over Miko, in a protective stance, while using her circulating her qi inside herself, summoning hundreds of flower petals to her aid. Under the noon sunlight, they shimmered with a purple sheen as they rushed towards the cultivators. This was the effect of Asura's skill, [Asagao swirl], which involved summoning hundreds of flower petals to attack the enemy. It was powerful as it hindered the enemy's vision, and gave them several cuts in the process, distracting them with pain. This skill was not lethal, but very troublesome to deal with. Miko had seen it for herself when she sparred with Asura when she was younger, although she only won by a small margin.
The two humans cried out in pain, as hundreds of flower petals that had edges sharp as a knife cut through their skin repeatedly. It had even deepened the girl's wound. After making sure they were well wounded, Asura picked up Miko by her mouth and carried her back to their village. The attack only died down after she was a certain distance away from those humans, either because she was more focused on Miko than them, or the distance was too large for her to maintain it. For once, the young girl also had the brain to not chase after them, but head out of the forest immediately.
Deep in her treehouse, Asura was tending to Miko's broken bones. Miko groaned and hissed in pain as the medicine tooke effect, repairing her bones. She was lucky Asura had some high grade healing or recovery pills that could heal bones; otherwise she would be hurting for a far longer time.
"What happened? You are lucky I came by. If not you would have been taken by them and killed for your fur." Asura asked as she morphed back into a half human and used her power to condense some garments on her.
"Nothing..." Miko replied. She was too embarassed to tell her what happened. She used to be stronger than Asura, but now Asura was the one saving her. This incident was nothing but a painful reminder of how weak she was and unfit to protect Takei. Seeing how Miko was unwilling to divulge what happened, Asura stopped pressing. She more or less knew the story when she saw the gashes on the girl's face. After remembering how Miko seemed to have to restart her cultivation, it became obvious why she lost to two core formation third stage cultivators. Asura sighed, wondering how bad her friend had became, all over some mortal too. Yet, she knew not to say anything, knowing it would end in argument just like last time. However, she couldn't help but feel that all this drama over some mortal was not worth it.